Images Are The Original Health IT Unstructured Data. How Does Mach7 Release Their Value?

When health IT pundits speak of “unstructured data” they usually mean free text. But medical images are the original health IT unstructured data. They take up many more petabytes of storage.

How are you releasing the value of unstructured imaging data?

Eric Rice, Mach7 CTO:

Non-DICOM images present more issues for PACS users. To create a complete view of the patient, images from non-DICOM sources must be managed, accessed, and shared as part of a complete enterprise imaging management solution. Our VNA Platform has addressed the “non-DICOM dilemma” allowing multiple file formats to be managed within the same archive. Advanced VNA platforms like Mach7’s allow non-DICOM media to be left in its native format. These files are natively optimized and do not require “rehydration” to be accessed and shared. Optionally, non-DICOM media can be “wrapped” in DICOM for easier integration with applications that may require files to contain DICOM header information for access and sharing. Let’s not repeat history and forget the challenges of non-native formats. It may be okay to wrap a PDF formatted EKG in DICOM to be viewed in a traditional cardiology PACS, but if it is a JPEG image from a dermatology modality, why change it? If endoscopy modalities require an AVI formatted movie file, an advanced VNA should be capable of supporting the storage, access, and sharing of this and many other native file formats.

Mach7 Enterprise Imaging Platform is a clinical imaging platform designed to go beyond Radiology and Cardiology. We currently support endoscopy, dermatology, pathology, oncology, etc. to name a few. Mach7’s Archive can manage and store the following non-DICOM file formats: Bitmaps, Tiffs, Jpegs, AVI, Mpeg, PNG, Quick Time, GIF, DOC, PDF, HTML, and TXT.

Also, our universal viewer displays DICOM images as well as non-DICOM images, audio, and video files without requiring any external applications be downloaded or installed on the client. Our technology ensures that no clinical data is downloaded to the client. It is designed to run on workstations, smart tablets, and smart phones regardless of operating system or browser (browser must be HTML5 compliant).